Re: [PATCH v2] kasan: fix cache shrink race with CPU hotplug

From: Andrey Ryabinin

Date: Tue Aug 11 2026 - 13:40:03 EST


Hui Su <sh_def@xxxxxxx> writes:

> kasan_quarantine_remove_cache() first invokes per_cpu_remove_cache() on
> all online CPUs. Each callback moves objects belonging to the cache from
> cpu_quarantine to the CPU's shrink_qlist, where they can later be freed
> from task context.
>
> kmem_cache_destroy() invokes the quarantine removal path while holding
> cpus_read_lock(), but kmem_cache_shrink() does not. The latter can
> therefore race with CPU offlining as follows:
>
> kmem_cache_shrink() CPU hotplug
> ------------------- -----------
> on_each_cpu()
> CPU1 moves objects to
> CPU1's shrink_qlist
> on_each_cpu() returns
> CPU1 goes offline
> kasan_cpu_offline()
> drains cpu_quarantine
> leaves shrink_qlist untouched
> for_each_online_cpu()
> skips CPU1
>
> The objects left on CPU1's shrink_qlist are not returned to the slab
> allocator. This may prevent kmem_cache_shrink() from releasing slabs
> that would otherwise become empty. If CPU1 remains offline, a later
> kmem_cache_destroy() also skips the list and can report that the cache
> still contains objects.
>
> An intermittent occurrence was observed with a virtio-9p filesystem.
> The mount and umount commands both returned 0, but the kernel logged
> the following during the userspace-triggered teardown:
>
> [ 2994.380134][ T111] BUG 9p-fcall-cache-1 (Tainted: G B ): Objects remaining on __kmem_cache_shutdown()
> [ 2994.381140][ T111] Object 0xff11000004361118 @offset=4376
> [ 2994.381607][ T111] Allocated in p9_fcall_init+0x201/0x400 age=19564 cpu=1 pid=104
> [ 2994.382591][ T111] p9_fcall_init+0x201/0x400
> [ 2994.382810][ T111] p9_tag_alloc+0x12f/0x700
> [ 2994.382982][ T111] p9_client_prepare_req+0x102/0x3e0
> [ 2994.383165][ T111] p9_client_rpc+0x1ab/0xa50
> [ 2994.383334][ T111] p9_client_getattr_dotl+0xb0/0x1a0
> [ 2994.383515][ T111] v9fs_vfs_getattr_dotl+0x115/0x360
> [ 2994.383719][ T111] vfs_getattr_nosec+0x22c/0x3a0
> [ 2994.383910][ T111] vfs_statx+0xd7/0x170
> [ 2994.384062][ T111] vfs_fstatat+0x45/0x80
> [ 2994.384215][ T111] __do_sys_newfstatat+0x84/0xe0
> [ 2994.384386][ T111] do_syscall_64+0x115/0x6a0
> [ 2994.384566][ T111] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
> [ 2994.399720][ T111] WARNING: mm/slub.c:1244 at __kmem_cache_shutdown+0x363/0x500, CPU#0: busybox/111
> [ 2994.405655][ T111] Call Trace:
> [ 2994.406325][ T111] kmem_cache_destroy+0x73/0x1b0
> [ 2994.406630][ T111] p9_client_destroy+0x271/0x3c0
> [ 2994.407210][ T111] v9fs_session_close+0x3c/0x260
> [ 2994.407409][ T111] v9fs_kill_super+0x48/0x90
> [ 2994.407584][ T111] deactivate_locked_super+0xa3/0x160
> [ 2994.407778][ T111] cleanup_mnt+0x1dd/0x3e0
>
> Thus, a successful umount left objects in the 9p fcall cache and
> prevented the cache from being destroyed cleanly.
>
> Per-CPU shrink_qlist storage exists for every possible CPU, and each
> list is protected by its own raw spinlock. Iterate over possible CPUs
> so that a list populated before its CPU went offline is drained as well.
>
> for_each_possible_cpu() can do more work than for_each_online_cpu(), but
> this change only affects CONFIG_KASAN_GENERIC kernels. The extra work is
> limited to cache shrink and cache destruction paths and does not affect
> the normal allocation/free fast path. It adds one raw-spinlock-protected
> scan of each possible CPU's shrink list. These lists are normally empty;
> a non-empty list is traversed to remove objects belonging to the cache
> being shrunk or destroyed.
>
> Fixes: 07d067e4f2ce ("kasan: fix sleeping function called from invalid context on RT kernel")
> Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Hui Su <sh_def@xxxxxxx>

Reviewed-by: Andrey Ryabinin <ryabinin.a.a@xxxxxxxxx>